This week’s high school game of the week is a league battle between two contenders in the Oakland Activities Association Red Division.
The Rochester Adams Highlanders hosted the West Bloomfield Lakers on Friday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
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The game will be streaming live on Local 4+ in partnership with State Champs Sports Network.
Rochester Adams enters this game coming off a 28-0 victory against cross-town rival Rochester last week.
The Highlanders opened the season with a 48-14 blowout win against Chippewa Valley and followed with a narrow 22-21 victory over Romeo on a game-winning two-point-conversion in overtime.
“They never stopped believing in each other as players and as young men,” said Rochester Adams Head Coach Tony Patritto on the team’s win versus Romeo. “That kind of courage is what we’re looking for and they made it happen.”
“We know what a challenge it is to go there and play, they have a good team,” said Patritto on the team’s win versus Rochester. “We played a pretty solid second half especially and took car of our business.
Adams’ offense is lead by junior dual-threat quarterback Ryland Watters and three-year starter senior running back Matteo Humbert.
Waters showed why he’s considered a dual-threat quarterback last week against Rochester passing for 103 yards and rushing for 80 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground.
“He is a great dual-threat,” said Patritto. " He’s rushed for 200 yards, 5 touchdowns, 14 for 18 passing like he’s done what we’ve asked and now everyone else has to rally around him. He’s been a great leader for us and I’m proud to be his coach.”
Humbert scored the team’s other touchdown against Rochester and also plays linebacker on defense.
The Adams defense is led by a band of seniors including, defensive linemen Rowan Kawa and Liam Kania , linebacker Paxton Battershell and senior safety Tommy Offer.
The matchup is a rematch of last year’s district semifinal in which West Bloomfield defeated Rochester Adams 47-14.
West Bloomfield also won a matchup 36-32 between the two teams earlier in the regular season. Rochester Adams Head Coach Tony Patritto acknowledged the challenge of playing West Bloomfield and says his team must limit mistakes.
“We got to fix ourselves not so much worry about West Bloomfield,” said Patritto. “We know that they’re always well coached and very gifted. We’ve been playing them a lot the last few years and the last couple have gone their way so we’re aware of that. We have to take care of ourselves; no penalties, no turnovers and play our game.”
“These are all Rochester kids, they all grew up together, this is not an open-enroll district,” said Patritto. “These are all our kids and we have to embrace what we have, love what we have and get the most out of them. And make sure they know on any given night we can beat anybody.”
Patritto says he’s not focusing on post-season goals. He’s laser focused on the task at hand, beating West Bloomfield.
“Our goal is to be better today than we were yesterday and to beat West Bloomfield,” said Patritto. “I’m not thinking about a league title, I’m not thinking about playoffs, none of those things. Cause I think when you lose that kind of focus, you’re not at your best. So I’m trying to model that for the kids. We’re going to live in the moment and try to beat West Bloomfield.”
West Bloomfield enters this game coming off a 28-13 loss against Birmingham Groves.
The Lakers opened the season in week one with a 42-0 blowout win against Chippewa Valley.
Last season, West Bloomfield was one win away from a trip to the state championship at Ford Field but The Lakers lost a hard-fought game 40-35 against the eventual Division 1 state champions Southfield Arts and Tech.
West Bloomfield’s offense is led by one of the best receiver duos in the state in senior wideouts Elisha Durham and University of Toledo commit Kam Flowers.
The Lakers have two quarterbacks that split time at the position. Junior Jamal Shakespear is a dual-threat quarterback who also plays safety on defense while senior transfer from Detroit Catholic Central, Beau Jackson is primarily a pocket passer.
Jackson was voted the top quarterback in Michigan high school football entering the 2024 season by Sports Illustrated. He has several college offers including Buffalo, Colorado, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan.
“They can both play so that’s why we play them both,” said West Bloomfield Head Coach Zach Hilbers. “Jamal is more of an athlete and he’s our starting free safety, he’ll play receiver, he’ll play running back, he’ll play quarterback. He’s just a really well-rounded high school football player. And Beau is a little more of a traditional quarterback and he’s pretty good at it too. It’s a really good problem to have when you have a couple of guys that can get it done at a high level.”
“There’s a saying that goes around maybe its an NFL thing, ‘If you have two quarterbacks you really have none.’ I guess I don’t agree with that,” said Hilbers.
The defense is largely brand new as most of the starters from last season were seniors. Hilbers says he expected a learning curve on that side of the ball but is proud of the team’s willingness to learn.
“It’s definitely not as much experience as we have on the other side of the ball or even a year ago when we had 10 seniors out there starting and some of those seniors were three and four year varsity players that just knew your stuff inside out,” said Hilbers. “But in terms of how they progressed, it hasn’t been perfect. We’ve made mistakes but I’m really happy with how they’ve grown and embraced the challenge of knowing that they have a lot to learn and they’ve eaten up the work in the classroom and the film room.”
Hilbers says West Bloomfield’s goal this season is to win the division because the strong schedule of the OAA Red division gives the team a great chance to excel in the playoffs.
“The idea behind winning our division because it’s so competitive, means you’re going to be in the playoffs,” said Hilbers. “If you go through our schedule and you just qualify for the playoffs, you’re going to have a chance to compete for a state championship.”
The Lakers’ most recent state title appearance and victory was in 2020.
The matchup between Rochester Adams and West Bloomfield is the first league game for both teams and has major playoff and league title implications.
The game came down to a fourth quarter Rochester Adams drive that spanned 20 plays and 10 minutes. The Highlanders’ physicality allowed them to methodically run the ball for the full length of the field. The final drive was dominated by Watters and Humbert who ran a read option for nearly the entire drive. The drive was capped off with Watters scoring a 1-yard touchdown rush with 30 seconds remaining in the game.
Credit: Darrius Smith, WDIV Photojournalist
West Bloomfield had no timeouts and made a valiant effort to drive down the field but ran out of time as senior safety Tommy Offer made a game-ending tackle.
Rochester Adams defeated West Bloomfield 21-14 in a highly competitive game.
Credit: Darrius Smith, WDIV Photojournalist